Council of Ministers Official Urges Improved Economics Reporting

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# Concatenated JPRS Reports, 1990

Document 6 of 8

13. The story of the AUCCTU protest lodged in January can serve as an example of how newspaper people sometimes wander between the fact and the phenomenon.

14. At that time an acute financial situation had taken shape in metallurgical enterprises and enterprises of other branches. The cause was--an increase in wholesale prices for diesel fuel, and increased rates for freight shipments and electric power. The mechanics of the loss are uncomplicated: as the expenses of the users of these resources increase, their profits decline. Nor are the customary solutions complicated: either compensate for the losses by raising prices for your own product, or hold out your hand and demand compensation from the budget. It would appear there is no other recourse. But you see, neither are there any extra resources in the budget.

15. The press sounded the alarm; at the metallurgical plants, they began to talk about electing strike committees. One can judge the attitude of the authors of these reports toward raising wholesale prices by the headlines: 'A Stumbling-Block to Reform'' (TRUD, 31 January), and 'Trade Unions Protest Ill-Considered Government Decisions'' (RABOCHAYA TRIBUNA, 1 February). And because of the 'stumbling block,' without further commentary, it goes without saying, they reported of the ultimatum which the trade unions declared in their Protest No 1: If the government does not correct its 'ill-considered decision,' before 5 February... What followed was a transparent hint on the law on collective labor disputes.

16. If one takes a look at these and earlier articles--and no fewer than 10 had accumulated by 1 February--one sees that the correspondents' attempts to delve into the essence of what was taking place did not go beyond an elementary estimate of the enterprises' possible losses; which by the way did not, for example, stop A. Yevgenyev in RABOCHAYA TRIBUNA from immediately and unconditionally condemning the actions of the government organs. In the same manner, the correspondent accepted the arguments of the trade union officials, and in any case arranged them in a certain logical order--and then met the explanations of Minfin representatives with obvious sarcasm: "'It turns out that the correction of the prices and rates of which we are speaking, is in pursuit of the noblest of goals.'"

17. But you see the goal is indeed a noble one--to normalize the situation in the national economy and to force the pricing mechanism to operate to economize on resources in short supply. It is hard to imagine anything else which the national economy requires more acutely. Everyone can remember the miners' demands to increase prices for coal. Next there were the serious conflicts with the railroad